Of the People You Know
by writeforlove
Summary: "The last thing Logan Echolls said to me," Lily begins, managing to sound casual even as she ramps up drama to her 'big reveal'. "Was that he gets you in the breakup, Veronica." - five pre-series snapshots. Title changed from "It's Who You Know".
1. It's Who You Know

**A/N: **This chapter has been edited, and is no longer a stand alone one shot by the first in a series of five snap shot fics. Thank you to all those who already reviewed this story; hopefully this reposting causes no confusion!

**It's Who You Know**

When Lilly opens the door in a miniskirt, halfway through applying a coat of glittering lip gloss, Veronica begins to suspect that their day of lounging by the pool has been cancelled. "Hot date with Logan?" she asks, because there's no point in getting mad at Lilly for blowing off plans. Next week she'll be canceling on Logan to hang out with Veronica, so it will all even out eventually.

"Please," she says in that dramatic way that only works for Lilly Kane, "I am so done with that kid."

"Really?" questions Veronica as she follows her best friend to her bedroom. She's heard that particular thing many times before, and it has never proven true.

"Yes! Seriously, this time, I swear, V. Mars," she vows, sitting down at her vanity and leaving Veronica to curl up on her bed. They've played this scene out a time or two, as well, Lilly getting fabulous for a date while Veronica looks on. "We've like, dived up our assets and everything, total divorce style!"

"Well, I hope you took him for half his video game collection, at least," Veronica jokes, "And made a decent dent in his alcohol stash."

"That boy does have the best booze, doesn't he?" Lilly sighs, sounding regretful for the first time. "Anyway, do you want to know what the last thing he said to me was?"

"Wait, let me guess!" Veronica demands. "I can totally get this... Well, if _he_ broke up with _you_ it was probably 'How could you make out with Dick Casablacas, Lilly?' Except he probably called you a nasty name."

"Hey, you're the only one getting all judgy about that incident!" Lilly protests while flawlessly applying eye liner. "Besides, that was a dare!"

"Even so," Veronica says, her nose wrinkled in disgust, "It's _Dick_, and a jealous Logan isn't exactly a rational one."

"Well, Logan isn't jealous over Dick; he's the one who dared me to do it in the first place," Lilly explained, "And anyway, _I_ broke up with _him_."

"Ah," Veronica nods sagely, "Then his last words were some iteration of the 'don't come crawling back when you're bored and horny' variety."

"Nope," Lilly denies, rustling through her stuffed jewellery box for a suitable necklace, "You'll never guess, Ronnie."

"Fine, then," Veronica admits in defeat, because she's out of guesses anyway. All of the Logan/Lilly breakups she's witnessed have ended in one of those two ways. "Tell me."

"The last thing Logan Echolls said to me," Lilly begins, managing to sound casual even as she ramps up drama to her 'big reveal'. "Was that he gets you in the breakup."

"What?" Veronica asks in genuine surprise. Sure, she and Logan have been friends ever since they both started hanging around the Kane residence on a daily basis, but it had always seemed to Veronica that he considered her an extension of Lilly. The angrier he was with her best friend, the more her snarled at Veronica.

"Yeah, he says that since Duncan's my brother I can have him," Lilly says, rolling her expressive eyes again, making it clear what she thought of that particular acquisition. "But Logan gets you."

"So I'm just another one of your 'assets', huh?" Veronica protests.

"No, sweetie, your one of _Logan_'s assets; weren't you listening?" Lilly says, ducking the pillow that Veronica launches at her with a laugh.

"Where are you going, if you haven't got a date with Logan?" Veronica finally asks, just before Lilly stands to gather her purse.

"I've got a date with a substantially hotter guy," Lilly explains, "And I've kind of got to jet."

Veronica, a little put out, gets off the bed. "So I guess I should go spend my afternoon sprawled on Logan's bed, then," she says.

"Honey," Lilly scolds, and okay, Veronica now realizes what she just said. "You should at least break up with my brother before fucking my ex."

Veronica protests a little as they walk out the front door, but Lilly's laugh overrides her and by the time Lilly has taken off in her car, the blushing has mostly stopped. Standing at the gate to the Kane property, watching her best friend disappear from view, Veronica wishes Duncan were around. Since he's not, she's going to have to either call her mother for a ride less than twenty minutes after getting dropped off, or she'll have to walk home.

Man, Veronica cannot _wait_ to get her driver's licence.

Idly wandering through the streets of the 09er neighbourhood, a third alternative suddenly occurs to Veronica, and before she really considers it, Lynn Echolls has ushered her into their house and shooed her out back to where Logan floats on a lounge chair in the pool.

"So, I hear I'm your new best friend," she calls out, and her silly impulse is proven worthwhile when Logan looks startled, then grins.

"Well, I had to get _something_ out of the settlement, and Lilly had already claimed ownership of that stuffed penguin I won at the fair last month," Logan informs her.

"I feel so cherished," Veronica tells him drily. "Maybe I will go home after all."

"You have to stay, Mars," Logan contradicts. "Lilly and I have a contract. Besides, isn't Duncan still stuck golfing with Jake and his business associates?"

"Yep," Veronica agrees, smirking a little at the thought of her boyfriend stuck on the links with a bunch of men toadying up to his father. It would be sad, if Duncan weren't so good at schmoozing with them.

"Then come and lounge with me," Logan suggests, paddling his chair towards the edge of the pool.

"We'll sink," Veronica protests, "Those things weren't exactly made for two people."

" Lucky for us you're like, the size of maybe _half_ a person," he argues shifting so there's room beside him for her. He's grinning, and a happy Logan is actually pretty hard to resist, despite how much of an ass an unhappy Logan can be.

"Fine," she sighs, knowing that she'll never win this argument – her heart isn't even really in it. Still, she doesn't exactly believe Logan about the sturdiness of the pool chairs so she slips off her shorts and shirt, glad she'd put her bathing suit on at home rather than planning to change at Lilly's.

"Well, that is not your typical Veronica Mars swim wear," Logan says, his eyebrows lifted. "What would daddy Mars say if he could see you now."

Veronica glances down at the pink and yellow bikini that she very rarely wears. "Well, I was supposed to be soaking up the sun with Lilly, who has this thing about tan lines," Veronica explains, doing her best not to blush and only barely managing not to dive back for her clothes. Her suit hadn't _seemed_ so skimpy before, when it was supposed to be just girls. "She promised me you and Duncan wouldn't be around. Now, are you going to help me onto that drowning hazard or not?"

Logan promptly reaches up to help her down, and a minute later, with only some mild screaming an impressively tiny amount of splashing, she's tucked against her new 'best friend', basking in the sunshine while he lazily propels them to the centre of the pool.

"You got my shirt wet, Mars," Logan protests idly, and Veronica cracks an eye to investigate his claim.

"That's like, two drops of water, Logan," she argues, "And you're the one who chose to wear a shirt in the pool. You get what you get."

"Well, then, Mars, maybe what you'll get is wet," Logan threatens, rocking the chair threateningly.

Veronica squeals in protest and throws her arms around Logan's chest. "If I go down, I'm taking you down with me," she threatens, looking up at Logan with the best glare she can muster. He just laughs and relaxes the arms that are braced against the arms of the chair.

"Well in that case, Ronnie, I guess you've got me beat," he tells her, as they settle more comfortably on the chair.

This is nice, Veronica reflects after a few minutes of easy silence. This is the Logan she likes, rather than the angry version of himself he is so often, anymore. Maybe this Lilly break up really is the genuine artefact, she thinks, and maybe it will actually be good for Logan. Maybe this even is the start of a better friendship between them. Maybe –

There's a series of mechanical clicking noises and Veronica whips her head around to spot Mrs. Echolls standing on the edge of the pool, snapping photos of them.

"Aw, jeeze, Mom," Logan complains, "What are you doing?"

"Sorry, honey, but you two just looked so _cute_!" calls Mrs. Echolls unapologetically.

"Yeah, but I don't exactly need photographic proof laying around that would suggest that Ronnie and I are actually friends," Logan insists, even though he doesn't so much as move the arm he's got slung around Veronica's shoulders.

"Don't listen to him, Mrs. Echolls!" Veronica calls out, elbowing Logan in the ribs, "Logan told Lilly that I'm his best friend!"

"Call me Lynn, Veronica, dear," the former movie star insists a moment or two before heading back inside.

"My mother _adores _you, Ronnie," Logan says in rather insulting bafflement.

"Of course she does," Veronica says, doing her best to channel Lilly, "I'm _adorable_."

"No, but seriously, the woman physically cringes every time Lilly calls her by her first name," Logan insists, "But with you? It's all 'call me Lynn, darling Veronica'!"

" That's not adoration, Logan," Veronica dismisses, "That's just liking me better than Lilly, and since I've never been discovered in your bedroom at 4 a.m. drunk on champagne, that's not much of an accomplishment."

"Don't sell yourself short, Mars," Logan contradicts, "That woman adores you."

"Whatever, Logan."

"No, Ronnie, this is great! Because we're going to use your super power for evil," Logan plots, "Think of all the things I'm going to be able to get away with, because my mom likes you!"

Veronica smiles as Logan continues to enthusiastically list all the debauched capers he'll be able to get away with now, just by telling his mother that he's hanging out with Veronica. Frankly, none of this sounds like stuff he wouldn't have gotten away with before, but she doesn't rain on his parade. If this is what being Logan's best friend is like, well, maybe she doesn't mind that Lilly ended up with the stuffed penguin.


	2. It's Who Takes Care of You

**A/N:** So, this is no longer a oneshot, rather a series of five interconnected one shots all taking place pre-series. Thank you to all (10!) people who have already reviewed the story to this point, and hopefully no one is too badly confused by the updated title or format. Better news, all five are written and I will just be editing and updating one per day this week.

**Part Two: It's Who Takes Care of You**

He isn't about to tell Duncan this, or anything, but in his own head, Logan can confess that the first things he notices that night are two very fine legs in a very short skirt attached to one petite blonde. He's a good friend or whatever, though, so he definitely sets that thought aside, even as he comes closer and realises that she's also wearing four inch heels.

Walking up to Veronica Mars and having her be taller than his elbow is kind of a strange sensation, actually. It does, however, make it easier to whisper into her ear as he comes up beside her. "What the hell are you wearing, Mars?"

Half expecting a snotty comeback, which is sort of a side of Veronica he wishes would come out to play more, Logan finds it unexpectedly endearing when instead her hands flutter to her hem, as though she has any hope of making it longer just by tugging. "Lilly _swears_ this is a dress, and even though I'm pretty sure she's lying, she wouldn't let me leave my jeans on, and I didn't know we were coming here, but Duncan's away and I didn't want to just go home, so, here I am."

"The shoes are Lilly's, too?" Logan asks, when Veronica tries to turn towards him and ends up wobbling unsteadily.

"That obvious, huh?" she asks regretfully, her dark eyes big and weirdly pleading by the light of the lanterns in the dark back yard, like she wants Logan to tell her it was just a lucky guess and really she's blending in with her partying peers flawlessly.

"It was either the shoes or you're already drunk," Logan says, because not even for Veronica Mars can he do polite social pretenses.

"I haven't had anything to drink," Veronica counters, "Lilly was supposed to be getting something, but that was, like ten minutes ago. Until you showed up, I kind of assumed she'd been sidetracked by you."

Logan scans the crowded backyard, the high school students sprawled across every inch of scenery, but quickly gives up on locating his girlfriend. If Lilly wanted to find him, she would. Right now, he had a promise to his best friend to fulfill. "Come on, Ronnie," he says, grabbing her elbow to avoid further high heel issues. "I'll get you a drink."

"Well, this is an honour, isn't it?" she asks in amusement.

"Hey, not everyone can say that they've had a drink poured especially for them by _the_ Logan Echolls," he tells her as they approach the makeshift bar in the Sinclair's back yard. "What's your poison, Mars?"

"Um, gin," she determines after pursing her lips thoughtfully for a moment. "Just, go easy on my, okay, Echolls? I don't usually drink when Duncan's not around."

"Hey, don't worry about it; I've got your back tonight, Veronica," he tells her as he hands her a glass spiked with less gin then he'd feed a kindergartener; she's tiny, okay, and not the lush he and Lilly are. "I promised DK I'd look out for you."

"That's nice, Logan," she tells him, with a big smile, and god, he thinks Veronica Mars is probably the only person on the planet who has ever thought of him as being _nice_. "But I came with Lilly, and besides that, I can take care of myself."

"Well, how about we just find Lilly, then," Logan suggests as he mixes himself a drink approximately seventy times as strong as the one Veronica is sipping. "By the end of the party, it will probably take _both_ of us to look after her."

ooOoo

"_Ronnie!" _squeals an absolutely _thrilled _voice, and yeah, Veronica knows she's in for it. Duncan and Logan may call her by that particular nickname regularly, but Lilly saves if for very special, generally _drunk_ occasions.

"Hey, Lil," she says , laughing as her best friend swoops her into a hug. Lilly's skin is flushed against hers, which isn't the worst thing ever, since Veronica is kind of chilly in her borrowed wardrobe. She's been wondering for the last couple minutes if Lilly is sufficiently drunk enough not to notice if Veronica changed back into the clothes she's got stashed in Lilly's car. "Having fun?"

"Yes!" Lilly replies, bright and giddy, "Now you have to dance with me!"

Somehow, Veronica had known it would come to this, but what's the harm, really? At least if she's dancing, then maybe she'll be warmer. For some reason, she glances up at Logan, who has been at her side steadily since he first found her and poured her a drink. "Okay, Lilly, I'll dance," she agrees, before flashing the tall boy a wicked smile. "But Logan has to come, too."

"Mars – " he starts, but honestly, who does he think he's talking to here? Veronica has known this boy way too long to find his stares intimidating.

"Of _course_, Logan has to come," Lilly cries, as though she's only just spotted her boyfriend. "Right, Logan?"

"Maybe after I've had a bit more to drink, Lilly," he hedges. Even Logan Echolls, it seems, knows better than to deny Lilly outright.

"Now, Logan," she insists, grabbing his wrist with one hand, still clinging to Veronica with the other arm. "You've been outvoted two to one so you _have _to dance with us!"

Rolling his eyes and nodding tersely at Lilly, Logan still manages to shoot Veronica a look promising he'll get her back for this. She can't help the smile that bubbles up in response.

ooOoo

Okay, so dancing with Lilly and Veronica isn't the worst thing Logan's ever had to do. It's even a little bit amusing to watch the pair of them wrapped around each other, laughing their heads off and singing loudly over the pounding music.

Even so, he doesn't hesitate to slip away once he figures they're having too much fun to miss him. Dancing isn't really his thing and he is so not drunk enough for that shit. That in mind, he makes a beeline for the bar, where he gets drafted to play beer pong.

The night gets away from him a little after that, until suddenly it occurs to him that the party is starting to mellow out a little, the dancing is pretty much done and it's been a while since he saw either girl. Wandering through the Sinclair house, Logan finds Lilly first. She smiles at him in that same heart stopping way she has, the one where he's absolutely floored every time he realizes that it's for him.

"Hey, sexy," she drawls, wrapping her arms around him and tilting her chin slightly to look up at him. God, he remembers a time when he was shorter than this girl, and she was just Duncan's mean older sister who pushed him off the swing set and stole his favourite truck. It's absolutely _insane_ to think they've grown up into people who date and fuck and maybe even love each other.

"Hey, beautiful," he responds, "Where you been all night?"

Lilly's mouth quirks and her eyes flash in that particular Lilly expression that Logan has never been able to quite define. "Don't be jealous, lover," she tells him, "I've been a good girl; you can even ask Veronica."

"Where is she?" Logan asks, glancing around. This room is mostly occupied by couples, and Logan hadn't spotted their friend on his way through the house at all.

"Veronica?" Lilly asks impatiently, "She was in the kitchen talking to Caz a while ago."

"Veronica was talking to Caz?" Logan asks sceptically, because Veronica might be polite enough to talk to Caz for a minute, but Logan can't see her making an evening of it. She might be the sweetest person he knows, but that's only because he mostly knows assholes. "How long ago was this?"

"I don't know," Lilly says carelessly, and Logan isn't sure why he bothered to ask; even stone cold sober Lilly sucks at keeping track of time. "I'll help you find her in a minute; first I want you to help _me_ with something."

"Oh?" Logan asks, even though he has a pretty good idea what his girlfriend is after based on the particularly devious grin she was shooting him and the fact that she'd told him yesterday that she intended to fuck him on Madison's bed. "That can maybe be arranged."

"I thought that might be the case," Lilly responds, before lightly shoving him in the direction of the staircase to the second floor. "I'll meet you in two minutes, lover."

"Where are you going, Lilly?" he laughs as she starts to bounce away. She pauses to glance over her shoulder at him with an exasperated smile.

"I'm going to check on Veronica so you don't spend the entire time we're having sex worrying about whether or not my best friend can handle herself at a party," Lilly informs him, "Honestly, you and Duncan are both totally stupid; neither one of you understands just how crazy badass that girl is, under the pretty blushes and the good girl clothes."

Logan is smiling pretty wide as he bounds up the stairs in search of Madison's bed, because, honestly, he has just the best girlfriend.

ooOoo

Veronica tries not to hate people, she really does, but _honestly_, Caz Truman is just so unbelievably _boring_. He's been nattering on about football or maybe rugby for nearly an hour while she tries to find a subtle way of making an escape, and he's just not getting her hints. It's not his fault he's vacuous, she supposes; Caz is what Duncan would be if he wasn't so smart, or what Logan would be if he wasn't so witty, or what Lilly would be if... well, if Veronica didn't love her, she supposes.

Telling herself these things has kept Veronica from straight up walking away on Caz when Lilly had ducked into the kitchen forty minutes ago, handed Veronica a new drink, whispered that she was off to boff Logan and disappeared. If she'd known that that would be her last chance at escape, she would have followed Lilly out, waiting Logan or no waiting Logan.

What's worse, though, is now that Caz has finally finished his sports anecdote, he seems to be working around to hitting on her. No number of blatant references to Duncan, _her boyfriend_, seem to be registering.

"So I've seen you at the beach with Lilly Kane before," Caz is telling her, "Maybe we could-"

"Take off, Caz," Logan interjects as he appears out of nowhere at her side, "Ronnie doesn't want to talk to you."

"Logan!" Veronica protests, taken aback by her friend's rudeness.

"Yeah, see, Echolls? I think the you're wrong about who the lady wants to spend her time with," Caz counters smugly, and Veronica's pretty sure that if she wasn't basically in Logan's shadow at the moment, Caz would be trying to pull her into his.

"No, he's right," Veronica contradicts, "He just didn't have to be so rude about it."

"Hey, Ronnie, I just didn't want to waste as much of Caz's time as he did of yours," Logan counters, and Caz finally clues in enough to disappear from sight. Veronica has been standing too long and tries to hop up on the counter next to the sink, taking advantage of the extra height granted by the deathtrap footwear Lilly had loaned her, with mixed results.

"I am," Logan says as he boosts her up to perch on the counter, "The very soul of etiquette."

"Oh, a true gentleman," Veronica agrees mock seriously, enjoying the unusual opportunity of actually being on Logan's eye level."An exemplary guest."

She raises an eyebrow at him, and he flushes, which pretty much makes her night. Logan's caught on that she knows what he and Lilly just did, and now little ol' Veronica Mars has made the bad boy Hollywood brat blush. She grins, opening her mouth to rub in the victory a little, but he hastily interrupts.

"Are you not going to drink this?" he asks, reaching for the still-full cup Lilly had supplied her with.

"I was," Veronica replies, letting herself by sidetracked. "But the first sip tasted a little funny."

Logan takes the drink from her and swallows a mouthful, his eyes shooting up in surprise. "Who the fuck poured this for you, Veronica?"

"I don't know," Veronica says, taken aback, "Lily handed it to me, but I don't think she poured it herself. Why? Is there something in it?"

"Besides at least enough alcohol to knock out a midget like you?" Logan asks rhetorically as he dumps the cup in the sink. "I don't know, but as of this moment you are not allowed to drink anything anyone but me pours, got it?"

She could call him on being kind of a hypocrite and needlessly protective, but honestly, she's had the same argument with him and Duncan a thousand times before, so she knows she won't win. She'll waste her breath telling him that she's a big girl and she can take care of herself and haven't he heard of feminism or equality, and he'll agree that she's right, but say it doesn't matter because she'd short and technically younger than him, so even if she doesn't want his help, what's she going to do about it? Logan isn't going to stop looking out for her.

That's how it's always been; Veronica thinks it has something to do with the fact that next to Lilly she comes across as so stupidly naive. "You're the boss, Echolls," she tells him instead, and she knows he takes her point when he grimaces a bit.

"It's not like that, Mars," he insists, "Only I promised DK I'd look out for you, and besides that, I'm not about to deliver you home to your father, the fucking _Sherriff,_ trashed out of your mind. He'd _shoot_ me, Ronnie, and not even think twice about it."

"You can pretend all you want that you're worried about facing Duncan or my father," Veronica teases him, "We both know you just plain _care_ about me. I'm your best friend, Logan Echolls!"

"Look, do you want another drink or not, BFF?" he says, rolling his eyes and entirely failing to comment on her declaration.

"No, I think I'm done for the night," she tells him seriously, toying with the hem of Lilly's ridiculous outfit.

"Yeah, me too," Logan suggests, and Veronica thinks maybe he's kind of still pissed about her too-strong drink, and that's why the party spirit has drained out of him. "Want to collect Lilly and get out of here?"

"Sure thing," she agrees, absently accepting the hand he offers to help her down off the counter. "That's the best offer I've had all night."

"It better be," Logan insists, "Or Duncan is going to be pissed when he gets home."

ooOoo

Tracking down Lilly is not hard; getting her to agree to leave takes a lot more work. Since he last saw her, she's downed more booze than Logan drank the whole night, and she's not ready to settle down yet. In the end, she's just lucky that Veronica is inclined to laugh at her antics while patiently directing her towards the door, because Logan is pretty much ready to ditch her by the second time she insists she just has to say goodbye to one more person.

Finally, Veronica gets her out the front door, and it's relatively quiet, with fewer distractions for the drunken girl. Spotting Lilly's car, Logan begins to question logistics.

"Is your dad coming to pick you up?" Logan asks Veronica, because Lilly is clearly not up to being designated anything at the moment.

"No, I'm at Lilly's tonight," Veronica admits slightly ruefully, "I have no idea how I'm going to sneak her past Jake and Celeste, though."

"That's not a problem," Lilly pipes up, beaming brightly at them both like she's got all the answers, like – well, like she's Lilly Kane and the world is at her feet. "I told Celeste I was sleeping over at Veronica's, so now we're each other's alibis!"

"Well, that's just great," sighs Veronica. "Now if only we had a place to _sleep_ tonight, Lilly."

Lilly blinks owlishly, "Oh, 'Ronica, you'll think of something," she proclaims.

"My parents are out of town," Logan suggests, "We'll go to my place."

"What about Trina?" Veronica enquires, and that that is her only question kind of surprises Logan. Still, Lilly's right, Veronica is the problem solver and she's probably already come to the conclusion that this plan is the best way to go.

"We'll crash in the pool house," Logan decides, trying to remember if he's left any more comfortable clothing out there lately so he won't be forced to sleep in his jeans, "She'll never know we're there."

"Awesome," Lilly decrees, "I knew I'd think of something."

"Pipe down, you," Veronica tells her teasingly, "Unless you want to give me your car keys?"

"Are you okay to drive?" asks Logan in surprise, "Because Lilly's plastered and I'm none too sober myself..."

"I don't even have my license, Logan!" Veronica protests, sounding shocked at the suggestion like a good sheriff's daughter. "I just need my bag out of the car."

Veronica gets her stuff, and pretty soon they're walking the nine blocks between his house and Madison's. At first, Lilly wraps herself between them, chattering happily about the party and how Dick totally threw up all over Madison's shoes and a thousand other things that Logan tunes out until it's just a happy buzz. Then Lilly pulls away from them and goes dancing down the sidewalk in front of them for a while. Logan falls in to step a little closer to Veronica, who is trotting to keep up with him in her borrowed heels.

"You know what?" she finally says, resting one hand on Logan's arm for balance, "Screw this."

And then she's barefoot and hovering back around his elbow height where she belongs as they follow Lilly down the side walk to his house.

ooOoo

By the time she's walked to the Echolls, snuck into the pool house, gotten into her pyjamas and convinced Lilly to change into the spare t-shirt Logan handed her, Veronica is exhausted. When she comes into the main room, with its large bed to find Logan collapsed on one side, she doesn't even hesitate to let Lilly pull her along as she flops down to join him.

After a long moment, the bed moves as Logan sits up. Lilly is displeased by this, apparently. "Where do you think you're going?"

"The couch," Logan says, sounding genuinely surprised at the question. "You and Ronnie can have the bed."

"No, stay," Lilly insists, "We'll all share."

"Lilly..." he begins.

"I want both my favourite people to stay," Lilly demands in her typically selfish magnanimous way.

"I don't think-"

"Oh, just lay down already, Logan," Veronica instructs her tall friend.

"Mars?" he asks.

Veronica sighs, but refuses to open her eyes. "You know as well as I do that she's not going to give up on this, and I'm not prepared to listen to the argument."

After a long silence, she feels the mattress shift again as Logan settles his weight.

Lilly sighs contentedly, tangling her feet with Logan's as she moves her head closer to Veronica's on the pillow. "That's why you're my _favourite_ favourite, Veronica Mars," her best friend whispers. "Because you always make it come out right; you always take such good care of me."

ooOoo

Thankfully, Veronica is awake, dressed and prodding Lilly towards the same state by the time Trina barges in the next morning.

"Lo_gan_!" she calls as she comes into the pool house, "Sheriff Mars _and_ Jake Kane are at the front door looking for their daughters!"

"They are?" he asks, doing his best not to jump straight into panic mode; even so he can't help but wonder what it'll be like to be beaten by someone else's father for a change.

"Gosh, Lilly, I _told_ you we should have just waited for your parents to wake up!" Logan tries not to look too confused by the valley girl tone of Veronica's voice.

"Veronica!" calls an angry voice, as the good Sheriff charges into the Echolls' pool house, pursued doggedly by the father of Logan's girlfriend.

"Yeah, dad?" she asks, and god damn does she sound _innocent_.

"Don't you 'yeah, dad' me, young lady!" snaps the man, somehow totally unaffected his doe eyed daughter. "What do you think you're doing here?"

"Looking for Logan's keys so he could drive us to pick up Lilly's car," she says, "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong is I've got no idea where you spent the night!" thundered the sheriff as Logan focused his entire being on not glancing at the bed.

"I spent the night at Lilly's, like I told you I was," Veronica says, and now she's _rolling her eyes_ and Logan may have to reconsider every word she has ever said to him, because who knew that the girl could _lie_ so convincingly?

"Lilly, you said you were staying with Veronica!" Jake Kane scolded, though he looked a little less murderous then Veronica's dad. Maybe that was to be expected, though since this was hardly the first time Lilly had spent the night somewhere she shouldn't.

"Um, no dad," Lilly snapped, "I told Celeste Veronica was staying with me so we could go to Madison Sinclair's party. She lives, like, twelve blocks from us. Why would we have stayed at Veronica's?"

"So you slept at Lilly's last night?" Sheriff Mars eyes his daughter suspiciously.

"Yeah," Veronica insisted, "It was pretty late before we left Madison's and Lilly didn't want to drive when she was tired so Logan walked us back to Lilly's and promised to drop us off at her car in the morning so Lilly could drive me home. Mr. and Mrs. Kane were already asleep."

"Why didn't you walk to get it?" Mr. Mars asks, and Logan marvels at how this man does not miss a trick. "If you walked to Lilly's last night, why did you need Logan to drive you back this morning?"

"Um, because the walk nearly _killed_ me, dad," Veronica insists, "I forgot my running shoes in Lilly's car, and I'll I've got are these stupid four inch heels."

"Where did those come from?"

"I lent them to her, Mr. Mars," Lilly pipes up, "If she doesn't wear heels I tend to lose her in crowds."

"I see," responds the Sheriff, and a moment later he and Jake are walking out the door, leaving their daughters with strict instructions to be at their cars in the next two minutes. Trina wanders off the moment it looks like nothing exciting is going to happen after all.

Lilly kisses him on the cheek with a breezy goodbye. Veronica waves, but before she can follow Lilly, Logan stops her.

"It's scary how good you are at that," he says, and when she laughs away the compliment, "Do you think your dad bought it all?"

"No, but he probably just thinks I'm covering up for Lilly drinking at the party last night by saying she was too tired to drive," Veronica explains, "So he'll grumble, but it will all be forgotten by Monday."

"And he won't be coming back here with a shotgun with my name on it?"

"Nah, don't worry about it, Echolls," she tells him before turning to go, "I've got your back."


	3. It's Who You'll Kill For

**It's Who You'll Kill For**

Logan wants to throw the bloodied towel down in frustration, but he knows better than to make any sudden movements. Instead he contemplates his other options, since he clearly won't be able to patch himself back up like he'd been hoping. God, things hadn't been this bad in a while, Logan reflects, bracing his hands on the bathroom counter and steadily avoiding the other sort of _reflection_, the one found in the brightly polished mirror. Okay, he needs a plan...

There's the hospital, but the drive across town with a sluggishly bleeding back sounds like a whole new kind of torture. Besides, he's been in twice already this month, and he's kind of running out of things to tell the wary eyed staff while they repair his body. More than one rock climbing accident or surf mishap and you start to look less like an adrenaline junkie and more like a candidate for suicide watch.

Veronica would be there in a second if he could bring himself to ask, but she'd probably want to fuss over him like his mom used to try to do, bringing him tea and trying to hold his hand... and that's not what Logan wants. Even his mother has learned not to hover after she applies the bandages anymore. She drinks while his dad roughs him up, cleans the mess up and then goes back to her bottle.

It's a good system; too bad she's out of town.

Logan guesses he could call Duncan, but he knows that his best friend would be nearly as likely to hover as Veronica, and be twice as bad at cleaning Logan's back up into the bargain. And that's if he didn't just drive Logan straight to Veronica, which was usually what Duncan did when there was a problem.

God, he could use a drink.

Which, in the end, is why he calls his girlfriend. Because he can't think of anyone but Lilly Kane who might be willing to clean up his back and then pour him several stiff drinks; besides, she's seen the scars, touched them even, and never said anything.

Five minutes later she texts him to say she's arrived, and he shoots back a reply saying just to come straight up to his bedroom. Aaron has long since retired for the night, and if Trina gets back from her party before dawn Logan will sell his new prized Porsche and give the money to charity. What he's saying is, he's confident that Lilly should be able to navigate her way alone, which is good because, now that he's collapsed on his bed, Logan is disinclined to move, to say the least.

"Logan," she whispers when she sees the state of him, and he hardens his eyes purposefully to let her know where she can shove that sympathy. She gets the message because under her it all, Lilly is tougher than the rest of them combined. "You're a mess; I'm going to go get you a drink."

And he smiles and thinks that booze before bandages sounds even better.

Except Lilly is gone an extraordinarily long time, considering you can find alcohol of some sort in nearly every room of the Echolls abode. He figures out her game pretty quickly, though, when he hears voices coming up the hall.

"I still don't understand, Lilly," complains a voice.

"Logan's _hurt_, Veronica," his girlfriend, that traitor, explains.

"Then why didn't you take him to a hospital or apply the bandaid yourself, rather than calling me and insisting I sneak out of my house to come do it?" she sighs in frustration, "I'm not the only one who took first aid, you know."

"Yeah, but I don't _fix_ things, Ronnie," Lilly claims, and they're just outside his door, and then Logan hears a soft intake of breath, and this is it, Veronica is about to start sympathizing and talking and insisting they get _help_ and he didn't _want_ that.

But her voice is surprisingly steely when he hears it. "Lilly, get me a bowl of warm water, some towels, peroxide and gauze," she instructs before walking over to where he's sprawled face down on the bed.

"And that drink, too," he adds plaintively, before it suddenly appears in his line of sight. Surprised, Logan glances up to see a very grim looking Veronica offering him what looks to be a triple shot of straight rum. Good enough.

Lilly goes and by the time she's back with the supplies, Veronica has him set up on the edge of his bed beside the nightstand, the lamp light shinning directly on the mess of dried, congealing and still flowing blood that is his back. Arranging her supplies, Veronica looks up to find Lilly hovering by the door way. "Get out of here for a bit, Lil," she suggests, and there's that softness he'd been fearing before, but it's not directed at him so he guesses he can hack it. Logan is frankly relieved when his girlfriend disappears; she'd been showing the signs of coming a bit undone and he can't deal just now.

"Now, Echolls," Veronica tells him once she's got him alone, moving to sit with one knee on either side of his legs for better access to the expanse of his back. "This will not be fun."

"Says the pretty blonde as she straddles me," he quips, then jerks in surprise when Veronica leans up to flick his ear. He chuckles; no kid gloves, apparently.

Then he's kind of distracted by the sudden pain as she starts at the bottom of his back and methodically cleans, dries, disinfects and bandages his many wounds. She's made it to his shoulder blades, where the worst cuts are, before he makes sense of the wet drops falling on the back of his neck.

"Are you crying, Mars?" Logan asks in what he _hopes_ is a sufficiently intimidating voice to make her _stop it_.

"Yeah," she snaps defiantly, though her hands are just as gentle with the next bandage. "I'm just so _angry_."

Oh. He can deal with angry, maybe, even the kind of angry that involves tears.

"Mars," he begins, trying to figure out how to hug her or something while she's still straddling his back.

"Just let me finish, Logan," she interrupts, stilling his movements with a hand on his arm. "I'm nearly done, okay?"

"Alright, Ronnie," he sighs, and after another few torturous moments of dabbing and washing and patching up, she's done, and Veronica lays down gingerly beside him on her stomach, head inches away on the same pillow. She's all big blue _wet_ eyes from this angle, and so Logan slings any arm across her back. "Hey, this isn't so bad, Mars," he jokes as she sniffles, "You should see the other guy."

"If I saw the other guy right now, I'd kill him," Veronica declares with unexpected fierceness, and god help him, Logan is pretty sure she'd at least _try_.

"Your dad would just have to arrest you," Logan pointed out in an attempt to lighten the mood. "And then holiday dinners at your house would be as shitty as the ones here."

"It wouldn't come to that," she informs him, impatiently dashing the tears from her eyes and making what appears to be a valiant attempt to stop more from falling. "Lilly would help me hide the body."

"Really? You pick your petite best friend to help with that rather than your burly boyfriend?" Logan questions, and maybe he was wrong about not wanting Veronica here for this, and about Lilly being the toughest one of them. The girl is always surprising him.

"Duncan is a bit squeamish," Veronica insists, "Lilly and I will do the actual deed, he'll be our alibi."

"Well, I still think you're going to need some muscle to pull this off," Logan insists, "You'll have to wait until I'm in better shape, that's all there is to it."

Suddenly any lightness Veronica has managed to force into her voice is gone, and is sounds like a promise when she tells him, "Okay, Logan, we'll wait until you're better and then we'll kill him."

He doesn't know what to say to that, so it's just as well that she kisses his cheek and goes off in search of Lilly.


	4. It's Who You'll Call

**It's Who You Call**

"Duncan," Veronica tries, "Duncan! _Duncan!" _

But her ex-boyfriend just stares glassily at the ground, and Veronica can't get through to him and she saw – saw, on the deck, sprawled by the pool like some hideous parody of her Saturday routine, saw _Lilly_, and she was – and Veronica _saw_ and _Duncan _won't look at her and she needs _something _and she isn't even sure what.

There has to be something for Veronica to do, but what are you _supposed_ to do when your best friend is- when she's... what is Veronica supposed to do? She feels like she's always _waiting_, just sitting around until someone tells her what to do.

She's got her phone in her hand and she wants to call Lilly, has already scrolled down to her contact info automatically, but that won't _help_ and Veronica can't remember the last time calling Lilly wasn't the first thing she did in a crisis. Of course, there's never been a crisis like this and there was so much blood, more than she's ever seen at one time in her life, more than there was that time Duncan cut his thumb trying to cook dinner, so much blood, the kind she associates with torn welts in Logan's back –

And then it hits her and she's calling Logan.

"Where are you?" she demands, and it comes out sounding more like an accusation, like she's really asking _why aren't you_ _here_? But that's okay, because Logan will understand, and he'll know what to do, because while Veronica's always just _waiting_ Logan is _biding his time_.

ooOoo

"Mexico," Logan replies, startled by Veronica's question, because it will be true in about five minutes if the line at the border would ever just hurry up.

"Oh, right," Veronica says, and it suddenly occurs to Logan that she sounds a touch off. "Right, I knew that. You went to Mexico with Dickhead and his brother to get over Lilly."

Well, Logan guesses that's correct, even if it's kind of blunt for his tastes. He's distracted in any case by the idea that Veronica may refer to Dick Casablacas internally as _Dickhead_, which Logan frankly loves. This girl, she's always surprising him.

"You can come back now, Logan," Veronica is telling him, and yeah there's definitely something strange in her voice, "Lilly's gone now and so I guess you can come back and not be in Mexico anymore, okay?"

"What do you mean Lilly's gone?" Logan asks in irritation, because of course she's skipped town, probably with some new _older_ boyfriend since she thinks he's so _immature_.

"She's gone and I can't – and I saw," Veronica chokes out, "And she's _gone_, Logan."

"Well, did you ask Duncan where she is?" he asks impatiently.

"Duncan won't talk to me," Veronica burbles, and oh yeah, that's right, DK had been avoiding Veronica hard core lately. Wouldn't even listen if her name was brought up; he'd meant to get to the bottom of that before, but then Lilly had stomped on his heart and suddenly surfing sounded better then dealing with anyone's relationship drama.

"Just corner him, Ronnie, and make him tell you where Lilly went," Logan instructs her, "You're totally tougher then Duncan, Mars."

"Logan, my dad's here now and I think he might know what to do, and he's pretty mad I didn't stay in the car," Veronica says distractedly, "But, Logan, will you _please_ come home, okay?"

"Fine," he sighs, looking for a convenient spot to turn his vehicle around. "I'll see you in a couple of hours. But once we've tracked my ex-girlfriend down you _so _owe me."

"Okay, Logan," Veronica repeats in this little girl voice, and he thinks she might be on the verge of crying.

"We'll go to the beach or something, Mars," Logan continues, "And you'll get drunk with me."

"Whatever, Logan," Veronica sighs, "Just, hurry, okay?"

And she hangs up on him, which is also kind of weird for Veronica. In fact, that whole conversation was just plain _bizarre_, now that Logan stops to think about it, and how dare Lilly break up with him and then look so happy all day at that car wash and _then_ run away to sulk like that?

Since he's got a couple hours of open road between him and Neptune, Logan pulls out his phone and dials Lilly. He waits impatiently through a string of rings, because of course Lilly doesn't even have the decency to hit ignore and let it go to voice mail without wasting his entire life first. "Lilly," he snaps when the message service finally picks up, "God, stop being such a fucking dramaqueen and let Veronica know where you're at, okay? She's calling me all frantic and this is just petty. You're the one who broke up with _me_, so just call your best friend-"

The machine cuts him off, and whatever, he's said his piece, right? But a couple of miles down the road, something occurs to him and he picks up his phone to leave another message. "Look, Lilly, if this is about that letter, I'm sorry, okay? But don't take it out on Ronnie, especially not when your brother is already being a giant tool to her. Have you got any idea what that's about, by the way? Because when Veronica called me she-"

End of message. Fine, once more. "When Ronnie called me, she was in tears, and I guess Duncan won't even talk to her to say where you are, if he even knows. So you'll have to call her yourself. You can do that right? Because I always thought you were a selfish bitch to everyone _but _Veronica. And I know it doesn't matter to you, but I'm kind of driving back from Mexico to deal with your shit, Lilly and-"

Jesus Christ. Well, he wasn't leaving a fourth voice mail on her phone.

ooOoo

Veronica is sitting in a miserable slump on the sidewalk when her phone rings. And she wants to pick it up, but until she does, it's totally possible that there's someone on the other end waiting to tell her that there's been some colossal mistake and no, actually, her best friend isn't – her best friend _isn't_. Once she picks up, though, she'll find out who it is and what they want and she's so _afraid_, and what's wrong with prolonging the possibility of hope, huh?

The phone has started a second cycle of ringing now, and Veronica makes herself answer it.

"Hello?" she asks, and she's thinking _be Lilly, please be Lilly_.

"Mars? Where are you?" It's Logan, and he sounds kind of impatient and Veronica's sorry, but doesn't he understand that she's kind of breaking down here? "No one's home at your house."

"I'm outside your place," she tells him, glancing up at the mansion behind the gate.

"Outside? Jesus Christ, Mars, you could go in, you know," Logan tells her, and it suddenly occurs to Veronica that maybe she has gone insane after all, and Lilly's alright because Logan's certainly not acting like she's – like she's, well, _like she's_. "I'll be there in ten, okay? Just go knock on the door and my mom will let you in."

"Logan..." Veronica chokes out, and she doesn't know what she wants to say after that, just that she wants her friends back and where did they all go, and she thought she'd be able to count on Logan, at least, because he's _stubborn_.

"Okay, Ronnie, I'm in the car now, okay?" he's saying, and if she didn't know better, she'd say that the tone of his voice has slid from irritated to worried. "Forget the main house, alright? Just, go into the pool house or something. You shouldn't be sitting out on the street like this, Ronnie; it's late."

Why does he sound so panicked? Oh, maybe it's because Veronica started sobbing at some point without even realizing it, clinging to the phone like she wants to be clinging to _LillyDuncanLogan_.

"Ronnie, Ronnie," says the voice in her ear, "Just hold on, okay? I'm coming, I'm coming."

"Lilly's gone, Logan," Veronica manages to choke out, "She's _gone_ and Duncan won't speak and Lilly's gone and there was so much _blood_."

She keeps talking, she's pretty sure, but nothing really sinks in until Logan is throwing his stupid blue car into park beside her, and _thank god_, he's opened the front door, but before he can get out she's throwing herself at him and so he sinks back into the driver's seat, and she's on his lap and sobbing and all she can see is blood and _Lilly _and Logan behind those images looking terrified.

And it hits her that he drove all the way back from Mexico without understanding, and oh god, she thought he would have understood, and how come he can understand everything else but he doesn't get this?

"Ronnie," he sighs, gripping her shoulders, "You have to breathe, okay?"

"I can't, I can't," she tells him, even though she drags a rattling lungful of air in as she says it. "I can't breathe and _Lilly is dead_, Logan, and there was so much _blood_."

Lilly is dead, and even with Logan's arms around her, Veronica can't breathe.

ooOoo

Logan doesn't understand what's going on, but he eventually coaxes Veronica into sitting beside him on the seat rather than right on top of him so that he can actually pull the car into the driveway. She seems reluctant to let go of him, though, and plasters herself so tightly under his arm that he is essentially driving one handed. That's okay, though, because Lilly likes to do that, too, so he's had practice.

Oh.

Oh _god_, Lilly _liked_ to do that, too, not _likes_, because he's starting to get that by 'gone' Veronica really did mean dead and holy fuck, _Lilly Kane is dead_.

"Come on, Ronnie," Logan says as he turns off the car, "Let's go inside, you need a drink or something and maybe to lie down or something, I don't know."

Veronica looks absolutely stricken, staring up at his house, until she hides her face in his shoulder, murmuring words so low that he has to duck to catch them, even though she's pretty well burrowing into his side. "Blood, oh god, there was so much blood and it reminded me, but there was even more and oh, god, who's going to help me bury the body now?"

And holy shit, Logan gets it.

Veronica doesn't want to go to his room because it reminds her of blood and the time (or two, or ten) where she patched up his bloodied back. Logan kind of wants to laugh, but he has the sudden idea that he's going to have trouble sleeping in his own bed from now on, too.

"Pool house?" he asks, his hand coming up to awkwardly cradle her skull, like maybe that's supposed to make her feel better somehow.

Veronica whimpers, and Logan isn't totally sure what she's remembering now, but he guesses it doesn't matter, because clearly he's going to have to figure out somewhere else, and man, where ever they end up, he hopes there's one fucking well stocked bar.

"Let's go to my house," Veronica suggests, "Please Logan, I want to go _home_."

The way she says it makes it sound more like she wants to go _back_, as in back to a time before Lilly was _gone_, but he can't accomplish that, so he instead just turns on the car, eases out of the driveway and heads back to the Mars household.

He pulls up and Veronica scrambles over him and out his door instead of the passenger side, which Logan doesn't really get until he realizes that she's still holding on to his wrist, refusing to break contact even for an instant.

"You're coming in with me," Veronica demands, and then, because she's Veronica Mars, of course her eyes soften and she asks, "Right?"

"What about your parents?" he asks, a little warily, because he's never known how to handle Sheriff Mars, so unlike any of his other friend's parents.

"Mom is out," Veronica shrugs, and Logan recognizes that particular term from when his mother goes _out_ and doesn't come back until morning. "Dad is still at the Kane place."

And, huh, they must have found Lilly at home, and man, she really hadn't gone far after all; Logan had _really_ misunderstood Veronica earlier.

"Got anything to drink?" Logan asks as he lets the pint sized blonde girl drag him into her family home. He's been here a couple of times, of course, but he's trying really hard not to think about that, because usually Lilly was there, too, and god, he's just _not_ going to think about her, okay?

"I don't," Veronica tells him, still clutching as his right arm like she's afraid he'll disappear if she doesn't, "But I know where Mom hides her stash."

Wow, that's honest, and pretty close to acknowledging her mother's problem, which is something just not done between the four of them. Lianne doesn't drink, Lynn doesn't drink, Jake doesn't cheat and Aaron doesn't – Aaron just _doesn't_. But now Veronica isn't doing much more than just barely skirting the truth, and all it took was one of them _dying_ for the secrets to start tumbling out.

Veronica tugs him along with her while she rummages with one hand through a closet and comes up with a bottle. Logan doesn't even have a chance to read the label before she's got the cap off and is pouring a measure down her throat. She comes up spluttering from the burn, but that doesn't slow her down much as she turns to him. "Want me to get you a cup?"

"This isn't a cup kind of occasion, Ronnie," he tells her, taking the bottle and swallowing even as she pulls him deeper into her home. They're in her bedroom – which is, incidentally, somewhere he's never been before – and Logan can't help but think how very _pink _everything is. It suits Duncan's girlfriend, he guesses, but he supposes he was expecting Veronica's room to hint a little at the other girl he glimpsed in her sometimes, the one who promised to kill his father for him.

Then Veronica is pushing him down on her bed and following after him to do that thing where she tries to fold herself into him, like he's going to be able to protect her from this or something.

Well, at this point there's not a lot he can do except wrap his arms as tightly around her as possible and hope that she's right.

ooOoo

By morning, Veronica feels all cried out and marginally saner. It still causes her a weird pang to climb out of her bed and let go of Logan, but she figures if she's really quick she can manage to let him out of her sight long enough to shower and dress.

It's a bigger relief then she expects when she returns fifteen minutes later to find Logan, awake now, but still sitting on her bed. He blinks at her, and suddenly Veronica is groping for words to fill the silence between them.

"Hungover?" she asks, carefully hiding the empty bottle from the night before in a boot in the back of her closet, and look at that; maybe she's her mother's daughter after all.

"I may still be drunk," Logan suggests. "I'm not sure you drank your fair share of the booze last night, Mars."

"I _feel_ like I did," she contradicts, wanting to sit down next to him but afraid that if she goes back to clinging to him she'll never be able to let him go.

"So, since I'm still miraculously unshot, I guess your dad doesn't realize I'm here," Logan begins conversationally. "Want to try your hand at sneaking a boy out of your bedroom?"

Veronica rolls her eyes at him. "You're not a boy," she argues, "You're _Logan_."

He grins likes she's paid him a great compliment, when that was kind of the opposite of her point. She rolls her eyes again. "I'll go check if the coast is clear."

It isn't, as it turns out.

"Morning, honey," he father greets her softly from the kitchen, and the tone of his voice wants to remind her of all the horrible things that happened yesterday, but Veronica refuses to be brought down.

"Hey, dad," she replies, wondering if she can maybe figure out a way to get a ladder up to her second floor bedroom window so Logan can get out.

"So, was that Duncan in your room last night?" he asks, far too conversationally.

"Um, no," she says, "Logan, actually."

Her father squints at her, looking pretty beat. "Does that make me more or less angry?" he asks her.

"Less," Veronica decides firmly. "It was just _Logan_, dad."

"Okay, here's what we're going to do," he tells her, "One time only, special circumstance offer: we're going to pretend that Logan didn't spend the night and you're going to promise it doesn't happen again, _on pain of_ –"

On pain of death?

He doesn't finish the thought, and Veronica is grateful, even thought the word is still echoing in her mind. "Deal, daddy," she agrees hastily.

"Okay," he says, "Now go get the boy while I start breakfast."

ooOoo

Look, if Logan had somewhere else to be right now, anywhere else, then he would not have agreed to stay to breakfast with Sheriff Mars after spending the night in his only daughter's bedroom. But, as evidenced by the fact that the Sheriff had not yet shot him, the Mars household is clearly a reality free zone at the moment, and that holds definite appeal.

So do the pancakes that three of them eat, dripping with maple syrup. Finally, though, Veronica takes a deep breath and looks at her father. Logan wonders if she even realizes that she has shifted her leg to press against his under the table.

"How late were you at the Kanes'?" she asks.

"Pretty late, sweetie," the Sheriff says in what is clearly the least scary voice on the planet. Who knew this man had that in him, too?

"Do you know what happened?"

"Not yet, Veronica," her dad sighs, "But I'm going into the office in a couple of minutes. We'll get the bastard, baby."

"Okay, dad," she says, and Logan can hear her utter faith in her father, and maybe he even feels a little of that himself.

"You'll probably have to come in and give a statement," Sheriff Mars explains gently, "You, too, Logan."

"Logan was in Mexico, dad," Veronica explains promptly. "He didn't even know about Lilly until I called him to come home yesterday."

"Did you speak to Lilly at all well you were away?" he asks.

"No. We were fighting before I left." Logan says, because no matter what Lilly said when she broke up with him last week or what he wrote in a letter for her to find, Logan knew that if this hadn't happened, they would have been back together by the end of the week, so honestly, they weren't _broken up_, they were _fighting_. "I did call her a couple of times on the way home from Mexico."

"Why?" Veronica asks, obviously startled.

"To yell at her for hiding from you," he admits miserably, "I didn't understand, when you told me on the phone that Lilly was _gone_... I thought you meant she was missing, off sulking and Duncan wouldn't tell you where she was."

"Oh, Logan," Veronica gasps, and then she's folding her arms around him and he's the one trying to choke back tears, and this is _stupid_, and Sheriff Mars is right there, across the table, and then he isn't because he's resting a hand on Logan's shoulder, the one not currently occupied by Veronica's head.

"I'm sorry, son," he murmurs. "We'll get whoever did this, though."


	5. It's Who You Choose

**It's Who You Choose**

Jake Kane is late for his own daughter's funeral, and it makes Logan absolutely _furious_, because he knows that the man is late because he's still at the sheriff's office, explaining over and over that he didn't kill Lilly. God, there are, like four decent fathers in all of Neptune; what right does Keith Mars have to harass one of them like this?

Because Jake adored his daughter, and his son and would never _hurt_ either of them. And it's just so crappy and unfair and how was the sheriff supposed to catch Lilly's killer like he'd _promised_ if he spent all his time accusing Jake Kane?

Logan takes another drink, watching the mulling crowd waiting around for Jake Kane to arrive. He hates these people, who didn't really know Lilly and love Lilly and yet are here _mourning_ Lilly. It makes him sick so he goes and takes his flask behind the church and tries to drink himself oblivious with far too little booze to have any hope of success.

A while later, he spots a streak of blonde hair and black lace barrelling up an apple tree. He knows it's Veronica, because that girl is always running away and hiding, _except when she's fixing his back and offering to kill his father_.

"Mars?" he asks, and startled, she falls out of the tree. She's standing again a second later, a hole in one leg of her tights, looking pretty sheepish.

"I'm scared," she admits, and so he sighs and takes her hand and they go back into the church together, just in time to for the start of the service.

ooOoo

Mr. and Mrs. Echolls had steered Logan into a seat in the first row of pews, and since Veronica was still attached to him, they'd made room for her, too. The trouble was, Veronica was now sitting directly in front of the casket containing the battered remains of her best friend, and that's all she can think about, the whole time people are talking about Lilly, or some version of Lilly, up front.

Even Duncan's eulogy, the first words she's heard from him in months, is only static in her ears.

There had been alcohol in Lilly's system the night she died, her dad had said. Maybe the murderer met her at a club or a bar. She had the fake ID Veronica had made for her, after all, and it was good one, even if it wasn't as good as the ones that still hadn't turned up in the mail yet.

That gaping head wound that Veronica still saw when she closed her eyes sometimes, that had to have been caused by a strong man using a blunt edged weapon, probably the ash tray the police had found in the pool.

There wasn't a lot of booze in her blood, just enough for her to be buzzing and happy the way Lilly always was when she drank, so it wouldn't have impaired her much. The attacker must have caught her by surprise.

Even so, drinking always made Lilly so _wild _and _daring._ Maybe she wouldn't have gotten herself involved in _whatever_ if she hadn't been tipsy.

Those thoughts swirl in her head until she's being tugged to her feet by Logan and led out the front doors of the church. There are kids from school all around, trying to talk to her, but Veronica ignores them when a thought suddenly occurs to her.

"Logan," she says, turning to the boy who is still holding her hand. "Give me your flask."

Glancing warily around for any parents, he does so, stepping so his body blocks most of hers from the view of the people still by the church. That's sweet, but unnecessary, because Veronica doesn't drink whatever he's got in there, she just dumps the whole thing on to the grass.

"Hey, Ronnie!" he protests, snatching the empty container back from her. "What did you do that for?"

"I don't think it's a very good idea to drink anymore," she tells him solemnly.

"Speak for yourself, Mars," he retorts, "I'm pretty sure getting wasted is the only good idea left."

"No, see, Lilly-" she starts to explain.

"Oh, please! Lilly Kane could drink _me_ under the table, let alone you, lightweight," Logan argues, and he actually seems to be getting pretty genuinely pissed off. He's dropped his hand from her arm and there's a whole foot of space between them, and she _hates_ it. "Jesus Christ, it's like you've forgotten who she was already, Mars."

"Just because I don't think getting black out drunk at her funeral is very respectful?" Veronica snaps, even though that wasn't her point, if he would just _listen to her._

"You didn't seem to have such a problem with tequila when we were splitting a bottle in your bed the other night," he spits out, and yeah he probably doesn't mean it to come out the way, but Veronica still does not appreciate the shocked whispers that whip up around them.

"This isn't about that," Veronica tells him tightly, "It's just that my dad told me-"

"Fuck what your dad says, Ronnie!" Logan yells, apparently at his boiling point, "He's just the guy trying to steamroll Jake Kane instead of actually finding Lilly's murderer!"

"My dad will find out who did this, Logan," she snarls, "Even if it is Jake Kane, and then he will make them pay for it!"

"You can't seriously think Jake would hurt her, Mars," Logan sneers in response, "Is this just you and your daddy getting some petty revenge because Duncan dumped your sorry ass?"

"Of course not!" Veronica yells, genuinely hurt, "Stop talking about my father like that!"

"Stop talking about Lilly's!"

This sends up a chorus of murmurs, and Veronica is reminded of their audience again; this has gotten out of hand, she realizes. "Look, Logan, this is stupid. We've never held our parents against each other, right? Let's not start now."

He doesn't look any less furious, and so she rushes on, "Logan, please, we're friends and I've never said a word about your dad-"

She stops, but it's too late; Veronica has accidently hit the launch code on the nuclear bomb and she can't take it back. Logan's face contorts into a terrifying mask, and everything around them is silence.

"You want to talk about those things, Ronnie?" Logan snarls, "Let's talk about how we all know how you're destined to be the same kind of wrong-side of the tracks drunk slut as your lush of a mother, and how, now that Duncan is done getting off on whatever fucked up fantasy you fulfilled, we can all finally stop pretending to like you."

Veronica walks away, tears in her eyes again, but already vowing never to let Logan Echolls have the last word again.

ooOoo

_Sometimes she keeps that vow, and sometimes she doesn't but from that moment on, she never forgets that of all the people you know, it's the ones you love the best that can hurt the most._

**A/N: This is the end, folks, because even though I like this fic, I cannot stand to let it go on sprawling and plot-less any longer. In other news, I'm 90 per cent done my next preseries **_**Veronica Mars**_ **fic. It's a nine part story called **_**Those Childish Colours**_**, which will be posted either tomorrow or Monday.**


End file.
